Presented by Larry Gould, Provost Tempe, February 2008

1. Rethinking Course Development:
Competing on Quality
Larry Gould
American Association of State Colleges and
Universities (AASCU), Academic Affairs Winter
Meeting, February 9, 2008, Tempe, Arizona

2. Where in the World is FHSU?

3. About Fort Hays State University
• Founding member of the Higher Learning Commission’s
(HLC/NCA) alternative accreditation track known as the
Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP)
• Academic Programming
 52 undergraduate degree programs
 19 graduate degree programs
 25 programs completely accessible off-campus
• General Structure
 Three divisions: academic, student affairs, admin-finance
 Four academic colleges, graduate school, distance education
delivery unit called the Virtual College

4. About Fort Hays State University
• Branding Tagline: Affordable Success
• Enrollment: The Way We Were (Fall, 1998)
 On-campus: 4718
 Off-campus: 839
 Grand total: 5557
• Enrollment: The Way We Are (Fall, 2007)
 On-campus: 4449
 Off-campus: 5375 (2300 in China)
 Grand total: 9824

5. Distance Education Course Development
at Fort Hays State University
• Historical Context
• The First Wave: Courses
• The Second Wave: Programs
• The Third Wave: Quality Assurance

6. Why Facilitate a “Third Wave” of Distance Education
Course Development?
• A Changing Competitive Landscape: Delivery Mode Is No
Longer a Niche Growth Opportunity
• A Changing Competitive Landscape: Diversity of Schools,
Programs and Approaches
• A Changing Value Proposition: Beyond Convenience, Flexibility
and the Adult Learner
• Enhancing the Value Proposition: Positioning and Differentiation
Strategies

7. Refining the FHSU Message to the Consumer:
Perceptions of Quality
• Positioning: price, geography, faculty, product,
performance, etc.
• Differentiation: affordable, traditional campus,
responsive, 26 programs, high student satisfaction,
etc.
• Using Quality: Creating Performance Indicators and
Transitioning to the “Age of Brands”

8. Facilitating Quality Through Policy and Process
• How do we achieve “differentiation” and “brand
recognition” through “performance indicators?”
• How do we respond to learner feedback to effect
perceptions of quality?
• The Answer: Rethinking and Recasting the Distance
Education Course Development Process

9. The Process of Rethinking the Process
• Results Management: Student Evaluations, NSSE,
Noel-Levitz, etc.
• Virtual College Advisory Committee
• Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning
Technologies (CTELT)
• Office of Quality Management
• Provost’s Council

10. Elements and Implications
• Three pathways to course development
• Incorporates national standards of “best practices”
(Quality Matters) to ensure creative instructional design
through rubric based process and modeling
• Authorizing of process driven by department, college
and institutional needs
• Increases efficient use of scarce resources (people and
time)

11. Elements and Implications
• Linked to academic quality improvement work
completed during Year of the Department
• Faculty-driven, collegial peer review, and team-based
• Designed to improve both on- and off-campus courses
• Process includes phases and steps that promote faculty
enhancement and learning

12. Elements and Implications
• Recognition that teaching on-line can be overwhelming
at first and different from F2F
• Intended to bring a diversity of knowledge about course
development to the institution and promote
dissemination and archiving of best practices and new
thinking
• The new process strives to improve FHSU’s competitive
positioning and differentiation through enhanced
performance indicators (perception of quality, retention
and student satisfaction)

13. Elements and Implications
• Second horizon goals
– Build a cadre and community of on-line quality champions
– Develop a culture of collective responsibility for high-quality
course development

14. • To the student: When you turn your course
on, does it return the favor?
• Thanks
• Questions?
• Link to full process and other information:
<http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege>